Perhaps you are part of the 44% of Great Cloth Diaper Survey respondents who were diapered in cloth laundered at home. Maybe your mother is now supporting you in using cloth diapers on your children. Here in San Diego, several local grandmas are even sewing cloth diapers for their grandchildren. (Even my mom, who never sewed diapers for my children, is now converting prefolds to fitteds for my coming niece!).

But maybe you’re part of the majority of survey respondents whose parents have no experience with cloth diapers. Where do you go for information and support?

Even if your parents used cloth diapers, they probably have no experience with the wide variety of styles and fabrics used today. How do you learn about these new diapers and learn how to incorporate them into your life?

The Real Diaper Association trains volunteers to start and lead local Real Diaper Circles, which are groups of parents within a community who support one another in using cloth diapers. Those leader volunteers also communicate with one another to get difficult questions answered for their Circle members. This is a POWERFUL support network but it doesn’t reach everyone. One of the goals of the Great Cloth Diaper Survey is to better understand what other methods of support are successful for new cloth diapering parents and to learn how to strengthen and spread those methods to more families.

Have you heard someone say, “I tried cloth diapers, but they didn’t work for me”? I have. Sometimes it sounds like an excuse. Sometimes I genuinely wish I had been there to support them, because I know they wanted to succeed. Those are the families I want to reach, and I’m hoping your input on the survey will help direct our efforts to do so. If you haven’t yet completed the survey, please do so now!